


In Reverse

by danisnopeonfire



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: 2009!phan, Established Relationship, Ficlet, Fluff, M/M, Swearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-15
Updated: 2015-07-15
Packaged: 2018-04-09 12:58:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,460
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4349696
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/danisnopeonfire/pseuds/danisnopeonfire
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>While Dan is visiting Phil's house, they find a box that says 'Open on a rainy day'. <br/>Only problem is, there's not a drop of rain in the sky and their patience is running thin.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In Reverse

**Author's Note:**

> 2009!phan is my weakness.

"I don't think we're going to find it, Phil." Dan just about manages to disguise his sigh with a chuckle as he continues to rummage through the bottom of Phil's wardrobe. "I've been looking in here for fifteen minutes now."

"I know it's somewhere around here. We were playing it last Christmas and I can remember putting it back in my room."

Dan snorts and drops the game of _Kerplunk_ he's holding as he looks over at Phil's legs sticking out from underneath his bed.

"You played this game with your _family_? I thought you said it was rude?"

"It is." Phil wriggles his way back out of the bed and offers him a shrug. "My family have a diverse taste when it comes to games."

"Diverse. Right," Dan says. He goes back to sifting through the endless collection of board games at the back of Phil's wardrobe, this time with a small glimmer in his eyes. "I would have paid big money to watch that. I can't imagine how bright red your face must have been."

"Shut up." Phil's voice is suddenly a lot closer and Dan blinks a few times to stabilise his quickly blurring vision. "You found anything yet?"

"Nope," Dan says with a chuckle, turning around to find Phil right behind him. "I think this is God's way of saying ' _Phil, don't force Dan to play Cards Against Humanity when he's such an innocent child'._ "

Phil breathes his way through a chuckle. " _Innocent_ , of course."

Dan ignores him and turns his attention back to the wardrobe's contents.

"This is getting boring now. Why don't we play Scrabble or something instead?" His hand brushes over a circular tin in time with his sentence. It's quite heavy when he picks it up. "What's this?"

Phil moves closer to peer over his shoulder. "Show me."

"Looks like some kind of sewing kit."

Dan pulls the tin out from the wardrobe and turns around so that he's cross-legged and facing Phil.

"It's not." Phil takes the tin from him and turns it over. "There's a note on the back, see? It says to 'open on a rainy day'." He casts a quick gaze to the window, which is pouring sunlight indulgently into the room. "But it's not raining."

"You sound heartbroken." Dan laughs as he takes the tin back. "Does it matter whether it's raining or not?"

"Guess not." Phil nibbles on his lip. "Open it."

Dan feels like a child on Christmas Day as he lifts the lid off the tin. He puffs a chuckle through his nose when the contents are revealed, covered in a thin layer of dust. A folded note is lying neatly on top of miscellaneous objects, including a puzzle piece, rubber hoops, a small wire-loop game, and a few other things that Dan can't quite make out under the dim lights of Phil's bedroom.

"Cute," Dan mumbles. "Whoever made this obviously knew how to have fun."

"I think my brother made it when he was little," Phil says fondly. Dan looks up at him carefully to try to detect any nostalgia in his features. He finds a lot. "God, this thing must be older than I am. I wonder if he still remembers."

"So you've never seen it before?" Dan drags his fingers around the tin's circumference. Phil shakes his head.

"Nope. Your guess is as good as mine as to what's actually inside."

"Let's find out then!" Dan exclaims as he pulls out the note and begins to unfold it. He clears his throat and puts on an even more exaggerated version of his own accent as he reads aloud from the letter. " _Dear, reader. Are you tired of the wet weather? Are you sick of staying indoors, completely stuck with nothing to do? Well, have no fear! Enclosed in this box, you will find endless amounts of activities to keep you busy and save you from boredom. Can you complete them all before the rain stops?_ "

Phil lets out a genuine, throaty laugh. Dan chuckles with him because the sound goes straight to his heart.

"Oh, my mum definitely wrote that," Phil says and takes the letter from Dan. "Her hand-writing hasn't changed one bit."

Dan smiles at him. "So, what do you say?"

"It's not raining, Dan. There would be no point."

Dan is on the cusp of rolling his eyes, but the sincerity in Phil's tone makes him reach out and grab his hand instead.

"I'm sure your brother wouldn't mind if we bended the rules a _little_ bit," he insists. "Besides, your plan to play mind-soiling card games backfired quite spectacularly. What else have we got to do?"

Phil looks up from their hands to meet Dan's gaze.

"I could think of a few things, actually."

"Yeah, I bet you could." Dan laughs and shakes his head. He stands up and takes the tin with him. "I'm gonna set this up. Feel free to join me."

Phil's imperceptible grumble is enough to tell him that he's won this time.

-

-                                         

"Imagine if computers didn't exist and people had to make thousand-piece puzzles by hand." Phil's voice is a shock to the longstanding silence. "That would be the worst job ever. Imagine it. Cutting up all those little pieces, again and again and again."

Dan raises his eyebrows and tries to block out Phil's voice as he hunts out the next piece for the picture of two kittens in a plant pot he's currently trying to make. Phil is just watching him with his head resting in his hands.

"I bet it'd take hours to make just one puzzle," Phil continues. "And if you messed up just slightly, it would mess up the entire thing."

"How scandalous," Dan mumbles.

"Right. And I bet your hands would be in permanent agony, too. It's like modern-day slavery."

Dan breathes noisily through his nose and drops a puzzle piece onto the kitchen table.

"Are you purposefully trying to distract me, Phil?"

"No." Phil glances down at the pieces sprawled out in front of them and picks one up. "Looking for this?"

Dan's jaw drops as he studies the piece. He snatches it from Phil and seethes when it slots in perfectly where one of the kitten's ears should be.

"Fuck you."

"Later." Phil laughs and starts sifting through the pieces. "We need to finish this before the _rain_ stops, remember?"

If Phil notices Dan's tragic descent into shyness, he doesn't say anything.

-

-

Dan can't help himself when he runs a hand over his face to relax his muscles. His jaw is aching from laughing too much.

"You look like you're trying to use the power of seduction to beckon Satan over to you," Dan calls from where he's sprawled out on the sofa, watching as Phil tries to throw a rubber hoop over one of the metal cans that are lined up in front of him. "Stop stretching your arms out so much."

Phil glares at him from where he's stood in the middle of the living room.

"Do you want to try this? I haven't seen you move your arse from that chair since we started."

"Yeah, and I bet I could get a better shot from all the way over here."

Dan leans over to pick a rubber hoop up from the floor. He brings his arm back behind his head, aims carefully, and then throws the hoop in the direction of the metal cans. As if to add more salt to Phil's wounds, the hoop lands perfectly over one of the metal cans without so much as a sound, and Dan laughs.

"Ding, ding, ding," he says, throwing his arms up. "You should have filmed that. It would have been my legacy."

Phil frowns and moves to collapse on the sofa, sprawling out over Dan's legs.

"You cheated."

"How could I possibly cheat at a throwing game? By having an affair with Physics?"

Dan smiles as he dances his fingers through Phil's hair for a few moments, styling it away from his forehead, before he has to stop and nudge Phil off his leg. He doesn't want to the circulation to cut off _completely_.

"I bet you used a magnetic hoop," Phil says as he sits up. "There's no way anyone could have done what you did just then."

"You caught me." Dan holds his hands up as he stands and starts to pack away the Hoopla equipment. "Guess I'm not as perfect when my secret's out, am I?"

Phil looks him over for a few moments as he picks up a hoop that Dan had missed. He aims to chuck it on top of Dan's head, but Dan is too quick and reaches out to grab it in midair. The victorious smile he emits in response pulls on the corners of Phil's lips despite himself.

"I beg to differ."

-

-

If Dan could will his eyes to stop focussing so intently on the sight before him, he would probably walk the few paces to the kitchen drawer so that he can get a knife to cut the tension with. But Phil's expression right now is _priceless_.

"You look like the epitome of concentration."

"Thanks." Phil's voice is a quiet murmur as he focuses on the wire-loop game in front of him. His hands are shaking more than Dan's ever seen them shake before.

"I'm pretty sure it's not supposed to make _this_ much noise." Dan leans forwards on his hands and stares at Phil from across the kitchen table. "Relax your hands a bit more."

Dan shifts on his chair slightly, but the motion is enough to distract Phil and cause the metal loop to make contact with the serpentine wire. Phil groans as a high-pitched buzzing sound fills the room once again.

"Sorry." Dan cringes and smiles at him sheepishly.

"I almost had it then." Phil frowns. "Did you see how close I was?"

"Oh, come off it. You had already lost like ten times. It was just a case of actually getting round the wire at all."

Phil pushes the wired toy towards him on the table. "It's your go then."

"Nah, it's okay." Dan pushes it back. "I think you deserve another go after my foul play."

Phil grins at him. "You sure?"

"I'll survive if I try not to think about it too much." Dan leans his chin on his hands and watches with a smile as Phil immediately resumes moving the metal loop over the wire with great precision. "Just don't fuck it up this time."

He expects at least a snort or a puff of breathy laughter in response, but Phil just remains silent. Dan had been joking earlier about him being the epitome of concentration, but now he's not so sure. He counts the amount of times Phil's tongue darts out to wet his lips until the tension starts to feel suffocating.

"You're doing so well," Dan says all of a sudden. He keeps one eye on Phil as he stands up slowly and walks to Phil's side of the table so that he's stood behind him. "Just a bit farther to go now."

"Whatever you're doing, stop it."

"I'm just getting up close and personal with the victor. I want to memorise the smell of success so that I can bottle it."

Dan leans down to hook his chin over Phil's shoulder and breathes out heavily through his nose. Phil's hand jostles imperceptibly and Dan giggles when a tiny buzz reverberates against the space between them. Dan can feel the muscles in Phil's neck rippling with concentration so he presses his lips there once to soothe the motion.

" _Dan_." Phil's annoyance isn't very well disguised by his concentration, but he still sounds somewhat calm. "Let me have this one. I know you're better at this than I am, but don't feel as though you need to emasculate me at every opportunity."

"I'm not." Dan tries to stave off his chuckle with a smirk. "I mean, I don't feel like I need to do that. Just _concentrate_." He punctuates his words with small pecks to Phil's shoulder and makes his voice sound as whispery as possible.

A cacophony of buzzing noises followed by a harrowing groan from Phil is the first thing that tells Dan he's succeeded in his quest to distract him. The second tell-tale sign is the way Phil turns around in his chair abruptly, almost sending Dan flying to the other side of the kitchen.

"I hate you," Phil states.

"No you don't." Dan feels himself growing in confidence as he smiles down at Phil. "If you hated me, you wouldn't be doing this whole thing in the first place."

"What's the next activity on the list then?" Phil asks, a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth in his endeavour to change the subject. Dan manages to grab the note from the table before Phil does, and he reads from it with a frown.

Bingo. _Fuck that_.

"Cuddling," Dan says.

"What?" Phil goes to grab the letter, but Dan holds it above his head.

"There's only one activity left," Dan lies. "And it's cuddling."

Phil looks incredulous for a few moments, but he smirks when he catches on to what Dan's trying to do.

"Isn't that convenient?" Phil places his hands on Dan's hips and pulls him forwards so that he's straddling him. Dan just laughs.

"It's hardly convenient on a wooden chair, Phil."

"You think so?" Phil asks. "I think this is _exceptionally_ comfortable."

Dan hums. "It's a step-up from your springy bed, I guess. I don't think my spine will ever forgive you. Or your furniture, for that matter."

"Such a shame." Phil nuzzles his nose into the small dip between Dan's shoulder and neck as he drags his fingers down his back. "I wonder if the _rain_ has stopped."

Dan only realises his eyes are closed in bliss when he has to open them to look over at the window. He lets out a literal snort when he sees large droplets of rain pounding against the window, complemented appropriately by a dark-grey sky.

"I don't believe it."

"Don't believe what?" Phil detaches his lips from where they're moving steadily across Dan's jaw, and he meets his gaze. When he looks over to the window, he lets out an equally amused chuckle. "Oh, wow."

"Do we have to do _everything_ in reverse?" Dan looks down at him with raised eyebrows. "Is that what we've become?"

"Maybe it's just our thing."

"That's gross, Phil." Dan leans down to hide his smile in Phil's neck. "I don't ever want to hear you say such sentimental filth again."

Phil meets his lips to Dan's skin with a smile. "No promises."


End file.
